Maple walnut ice cream is one of my all-time favourites. This homemade maple ice cream recipe is keto, sugar-free, and absolutely amazing. It’s no-churn and stays scoopable even after days in the freezer! And at less than 3g total carbs, you can afford to indulge in this creamy low carb treat.
Okay, so I am usually a chocolate girl through and through. It’s a rare day that you can tempt me with anything other than chocolate. But when it comes to ice cream, I have a few other flavors I absolutely adore, and maple walnut ice cream is one of them. Maybe it’s the Canadian in me, I don’t know. But maple flavored treats have a special place in my heart. And when you taste this no churn ice cream, it’s going to have a special place in your heart too.
I feel like I’ve spent the summer perfecting my keto ice cream game. Both churned and no-churn recipes. And I feel like I have found the secret to perfectly scoopable sugar-free ice cream. Here’s the deal:
You have to use two different sweeteners – you can’t just use erythritol. You can use some erythritol sweetener, like Swerve, but you have to also use another sweetener that helps keep the ice cream soft. Such as Bocha Sweet. I hear that xylitol can do the same as well. And allulose may have the same affect too, although I haven’t tried it.
I know some people won’t be happy to hear this because Bocha Sweet isn’t cheap. But it’s worth it, believe me. You know I am a huge fan of Swerve, which is an erythritol based sweetener. But erythritol and ice cream are not a great match, as the ice cream freezes rock hard once it’s been in the freezer longer than a few hours. Using some Bocha Sweet makes a huge difference, but you don’t actually want to use it full strength. Using only Bocha Sweet results in keto ice cream that is TOO soft and goopy – it stays like soft serve the whole time. That’s why the mix of the two sweeteners works so well.
I’ve found that using half Swerve and half Bocha Sweet results in ice cream that stays perfectly soft in the freezer.Check out this video as proof. This was after a full 24 hours in the freezer…and it stayed that way for the whole week until we finished it up.
How To Make Maple Walnut Ice Cream
For a no-churn ice cream like this, you want a thickened cream base. I basically used my sugar-free condensed milk recipe, except that I replaced the vanilla extract with maple extract. And since maple walnut ice cream typically has a darker appearance than vanilla, I used Swerve Brown for one half of the sweetener. If you can’t get Swerve Brown, you can also do regular Swerve with 1 tsp of molasses. The other half of the sweetener was Bocha Sweet.
Once the condensed milk was done, I let it cool and refrigerated it for a few hours. Then I whipped up some more cream, folded the two together, and stirred in some chopped walnuts. Don’t toast the walnuts for this ice cream, as they can get kind of bitter. You could replace the walnuts with pecans, or you could skip them altogether.
Then I simply spread the mixture in an ceramic dish and placed it in the freezer. No churn ice cream takes a long time to freeze so I left it there overnight. And the next day, it was soft and scoopable, straight out of the freezer! It’s some of the best low carb ice cream I have ever made.
Want more amazing keto ice cream? Check out my best Keto Desserts here!
Low Carb Maple Walnut Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, divided
- 1/4 cup Swerve Brown
- 1/4 cup Bocha Sweet
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 1/2 tsp maple extract
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring 1 1/4 cups of the whipping cream and the two sweeteners to a simmer. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Watch carefully as you want it to simmer but not continue to boil. There should be little bubbles along the edges the whole time.
- Remove from heat and whisk in the butter and maple extract. Sprinkle the surface with xanthan gum, whisking vigorously to combine. Let the mixture cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours.
- In a large bowl, beat the remaining whipping cream until it holds stiff peaks. Fold in the chilled maple/cream until well combined. Stir in the chopped walnuts.
- Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and freeze until firm, about 5 hours.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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I made this ice cream last night and it is wonderful! It was soft this morning and delicious! Could you use the Bocha Sweet in any of your ice cream recipes so they will stay soft too? Thanks for all of your had work you do to create these wonderful recipes!
That’s what I think should happen!
Thank you, I will try on your Strawberry ice cream
I think it would help the consistency of that one a lot.
Hello! I started Keto / Low Carb about 5 weeks ago and, to my husband’s “delight” – haha, I made an immediate investment into every. single. thing. I might ever need because I love to bake and cook so much. So I pretty much have every type of sweetener BUT… do not have Bocha Sweet. When I look at the ingredients it reads 1 tsp = 3 carbs (and not enough fiber to deduct anything). So 12 tsp = 1/4 cup = 36 carbs. If you divide that by 8 servings that is 4.5 carbs / serving just for the Bocha Sweet….?
Just trying to figure out what I am missing here with the net carb count since I am pretty new to this. It looks AMAZING.
Thank you!!
And just like erythritol (Swerve), it has no impact on blood sugar so should’t be counted at all.
Ah, ok. Didn’t see any sugar alcohols listed so I wasn’t sure.
Thanks!
Can one churn no-churn ice cream? And thank you for commenting on how erythritol freezes hard. I’ve been wondering why my ice cream is just not as enjoyable after a few days in the freezer. Cant wait to try Bochasweet.
You can churn this. What you want to do is not whip the cream in the second part but simply add it to the thickened condensed maple cream. Whisk them together and then churn!
Thanks for the prompt reply, Carolyn. I’m afraid I must really be dense because I am still misunderstanding. Nowhere in the printable recipe does it mention condensed milk; it just says 2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, divided. That’s why I asked if you used the milk interchangeably with the cream. I read the whole blog and I understand how to make the condensed milk and that you use it in the recipe, but since it is not listed as an ingredient, I’m not sure who to proceed. Thoroughly confused is an understatement! Help!
If you just follow the recipe step by step, you will be fine. The first part of it is having you make the “condensed milk” (which for keto is actually made from heavy whipping cream). But instead of vanilla, you are using maple extract. Once that is cool, you take the rest of the heavy whipping cream, whip it all up, and fold the two together).
Condensed milk is not listed as an ingredient because I am telling you in this recipe how to make it first.
Seriously, just follow the recipe. From start to finish. Do not go looking for the other condensed milk…it’s already built into the recipe here.
Carolyn,
I love your recipes and have made many of them. Thank you for all the work you do to make such great foods (especially the desserts!).
With the Maple Walnut Ice Cream recipe, am I missing something. In the blog you say to use your condensed milk recipe, but in the recipe, it calls for heavy cream and condensed milk is not mentioned. Do you use the heavy cream and condensed milk interchangeably (altho’ I wonder about the milk whipping up like cream does)? I can’t wait to make this one.
I think you are misunderstanding. Yes, I use my condensed milk but in this recipe I actually walk you through making it because you sub maple extract in for the vanilla. It gets very confusing in a recipe to write “Use condensed milk but sub maple extract”…so I am actually telling you exactly HOW to make the condensed milk in this recipe.
This looks amazing! Will try when I buy bocha sweet. I’m curious though, have you experimented using gelatin in ice cream to keep it from freezing rock hard? Danielle from AAG does this for her fudge pops recipe. Wondering if it would work in ice cream. Thanks!
I’ve used gelatin in ice cream bars before (check out my mocha latte ice cream bars). It keeps them from dripping but it won’t keep ice cream from freezing rock solid.
Carolyn; Thank you for your website. I can confirm that substituting 1/2 erythritol and 1/2 xylitol for the sweetners listed in the recipe yields a great tasting ice cream that is firm, yet scoopable. It was a major hit with my grandchildren.
That’s so good to know, thanks!!!
I just ordered the sweetener to make this. I have a small ice cream maker and was wondering if I could use it to make this. If so, what would I change in the instructions. Thanks so much!
Hi Chris. If you want to churn the ice cream, just don’t whip the cream in the second stage. Whisk it straight into the condensed milk mixture (after it has chilled) and then pour it into you ice cream maker.
Thank you!
Oops. Found my answer!!
Amount of Sugar Substitute?
Shouldn’t this be more?
I checked the back of a can of Sweetened Condensed Milk for the grams of sugar and see that there are 10 servings of 22 grams of sugar per can. This is 220 grams of sugar. I then checked for how many grams of sugar in 1 TBSP., which is 12.5 grams. To calculate the amount of sugar substitute which would equal that amount of sugar, I divided 220 by 12.5 which is 17.6 TBSP.
Therefore to make the sweetened condensed milk part of this recipe (to equal 1 can) I calculate that one would need to add 1/2 cup + 2.4 tsp. Swerve and the same amount of Bocha Sweet (or Xylitol) .
I have started your recipe as given and the base is cooling, but I am curious if it will be sweet enough.
Hi Beverly. I don’t know about you but the longer I have been on keto, the less sweet I need things. This is the amount I typically put in any ice cream recipe, and yes, it’s often far less than you would for regular ice cream. But to me and my husband, this was plenty sweet. That said, if you whip up your cream and mix them together and find it’s not sweet enough, you can add more liquid or powdered sweetener. Because this has no eggs, you can taste it as you go. Did you taste the condensed milk base yet? I think you will find it plenty sweet!
Carolyn, So sorry I doubted you. Never again! This ice cream is AMAZING. I don’t say this lightly either. (I am retired from being a Pastry Chef at a fine dining restaurant.)
The sweetness is right on. The texture is perfect– even after freezing overnight, unlike other sugar free ice cream recipes that I have tried. I used Sukrin Gold because I was out of the Swerve Brown Sugar and Xylitol because I wanted to be sure the ice cream did not get too hard.
Thank you for all your tweeking to get a perfect recipe. You did it 🙂
How dare you doubt me! 🙂 Haha, kidding. I know, it’s hard to believe to be honest. I am just thrilled at this discovery.
I just made this using Allulose and Sukrin gold and it is perfect!
Perfect!
Hi Carolyn, Change your Chill Time from 5 minutes to 5 hours.
Can’t wait to make this.
My niece and I trade off making dinners from your new keto cookbook.
We had the bolognese tonight. OH MY GOSH !!! So good!
Your flatbread recipe is our new fav on the nights my hubby orders his non-keto pizza.
Thank you so much for your diligence and for not producing mediocre recipes.
Thanks!
Bocha Sweet has sometimes been called Pumpkin Xylitol. Do you know if this sweetener is safe for dogs? I know that xylitol, extracted through a similar method from birch trees, is very dangerous and toxic to dogs, but I can’t find any reference to pumpkin pentose (the type of sugar extracted from kabocha pumpkins to make Bocha Sweet) being safe for dogs or should be avoided. Do you have any information about that? I’ve written the company but have not received a response. Thank you for any guidance you can provide…and your recipe looks delicious, by the way!
If you look at the FAQs on their website, they clearly state that it is not toxic to pets.
Thank you, good to know!
Can I use my ice cream machine to churn this yummy dessert?
Thank you for the suggestion, Linda!
You used GLYCERIN in the past to keep ice cream soft . So I bought a bottle of it. Can I use it in this recipe ?
You can try but I think that unless you use a lot of it, it doesn’t help as much as I would wish. And using a lot of it concerns me because I think it raises blood sugar a bit. That’s why in previous recipes, I only used about 2 tbsp.
Thank you Carolyn.
I make a lot of ice cream and really dislike using Swerve. Every darn time the stuff re-crystallizes and leaves my ice cream not only hard as a rock, but gritty like sand. I just ordered some Bocha Sweet and am anxious to give it a go!! Thank you so much for this. Being the ice cream fiend I am I am hoping for lots of possibilities…….Jack Daniels ice cream anyone? 🙂
Okay so I never have an issue with the Swerve recrystallizing in my ice cream, although I do have issues with the rock hardness! I suspect your Swerve is getting over-cooked…it seems to recrystallize more the more it gets heated. One trick is to add the Swerve after you’ve cooked the custard for your ice cream. In this case, you could add the swerve AFTER the rest of the condensed milk is done.
Carolyn, I’d love to know your suggestion for a good maple extract. I’d love to use it more, but have been disappointed with so many! Used to use Green Mountain Natural, but cannot find it anymore 🙁
Thanks for any ideas!
Good maple extract is so hard to find. The best one I’ve tried is Cook’s. It smells exactly like maple syrup. It tastes good, too, as long as you don’t put too much in. So, I start with a small amount and gradually add it, tasting as I go, until I’ve got a good balance. If you overdo, it has a weird, kind of bitter, aftertaste.
Thank you!
I love Cook’s Maple. But recently I bought some Boyajian. It’s super strong. It almost smells like burnt maple syrup if you sniff the opened bottle. But I added a tiny bit of the Boyajian to the milder tasting Cook’s and I got a super maple flavor in the no-sugar maple syrup I was making, especially after it sat in the fridge overnight. Anyway, thought I’d share in case anyone wants to try something a bit different.
I am currently using Frontier and it works well. https://amzn.to/2LeElQf
Ordered some… Thank you!
Hi, can I change this bocha swerve for another sweetner? It is impossible to find it in Brazil…
As I say the post, you can try xylitol. You can also use more Swerve/erythritol, it will just freeze a lot harder.
I used xylitol and it worked perfectly. Best Ice cream ever!
I just tried this with tagatose and it was amazing! I roasted the walnuts briefly and I added two egg yolks to the first step. Since I wasn’t using xanthan gum, I added a 1 tsp of rum and some salt. There were a few ice crystals in the final result , but the flavour was wonderful! Really enjoyed this, thank you 🙂
Aloha Carolyn! Would I be able to substitute the Swerve brown with Lakanto Brown? I know they are both Erythritol but I know how some recipes can even be brand specific to have the best results. Thank you!
That should be fine.
I used Allulose and Sukrin gold.
What does the Xanthan gum do?
Xanthan gum thickens things and reduces the iciness in ice cream.
I have Krisda and Sugarlike. Can substitute one of them without making the ice cream crystalize?
I am sorry, I honestly can’t tell you. I have no idea what those sugar substitutes are.